LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 089 034 4 



r^nncArvoifl/u* D^ 



P 685 
■T245 



ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 



SPEECH 



OF 



\/ 



HON. MILES TAYLOR, OF LOUISIANA, 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 29, 1858. 









The House bein;; iit thK Committee of the 
Slate of the Union — 

Mr. TAYLOR, of Louisiana, said 
Mr. Chairman: I presentmyseit'" to the House 
with somewhat of unwillingness at this time, and 
the more so because it had not been my intention 
to address it, it had not been my design to take 
part in this discussion until within the last tsvo 
•days, and I have not had the opportunity even of 
making any notes. But, Mr. Chairman, what 
has fallen from some of the gentlemen who Jiave 
spoken upon tliis subject in the latter part of the 
debate, and what has ^ust fallen under my eye, 
which was spoken in th(?.other end of the Capitol in 
the course of the d«bgit$ there, have suggested to 
iny mind some vie v»-swljiich have a connection with 
the question v/hich weare about to decide, and 
which I have thought it not improper for me to 
present, at this time, to the House, and through 
the House to the country. It is not my purpose 
to go into the argument in I'elation to the consti- 
tution presented to us as coming from Kansas; it 
is not my design toenter into the particular issues 
wliich Ixave been brought before the House, in 
connection with what is now known as the "Kan- 
«as question." That question, as now presented 
to us, has been fully discussed by those who have 
preceded me, and it would be but a waste of time 
for me to attempt to go over it again. 

My wish is to go beyond the apparent issue 
which we are now called upon to decide. The po- 
sition of Kansas is but an incident in the progress 
of the great question which has agitated the Union 
for years, and the oltjection now made to the ad- 
mission of Kansas is a mere pretext for the agita- 
tion of that great question. The slavery question, 
Mr. Chairman, is brought before us by the op- 
ponents of the admission of Kansas; and as that 
is the only question now really at issue, notwith- 
standing all of the shallow pretexts set up to con- 
ceal it, the only one which the people of the United 
{States are truly called upon to decide, I shall reler 
to it, and then proceed to give utterance to my 
views with respect to '.he attitude of that question 



^^ time^ijQi^Jwith respect to the future which 

lies, bsftsrfe' u^,;ji<'hich will soon be revealed to our 
view. ■ 

Hiairman, this contest, of which the issue 
in relation to Kansas is the mere incident, dates 
back very far into the past. It is an agitation con- 
nected with the existence of slavery, it is true; but 
it is an agitation which had its origin neither in 
the spirit of philanthropy or in any peculiar feel- 
ing on the subject of that institution, but in the 
lust for political power. It is well known to this 
House, as it is to the whole .country, that when 
the Constitution of the United States was adopted, 
almost all the Slates of the Union were slavehold- 
ing States. It is well known that after the adop- 
tion of the Constitution the people of the United 
States were divided into parties. The first divis- 
ion which took place related to the exercise of 
political power. We had upon the one hand those 
in favor of State rights, and in favor of restraining 
the action of the General Government within the 
narrowest limits; we had, upon the other hand, 
those who favored a strong and a consolidated 
Government. In the issue vvfhich grew up between 
them, it v/as the fortune of the whole South to 
take one side of that controversy, and the agri- 
cultural portion of the North went with them. At 
a subsequent day, a new arrangement of parties 
took place, in part influenced by the relations ex- 
isting between this country and Europe. When 
thespiritof Democracy displayed itself in France, 
when a new system of Government was estab- 
lished by her people, a portion of the people of 
the United States sympathized with them. An- 
other portion felt no such sympathies, but, on the 
contrary, Jheir feelings were knit to the policy pur- 
sued by the mother country, which, allied witii 
the other Powers of Europe, was then engaged in 
a contest against that new-born Republic. 

In th.e divisions that followed that new state 
of facts the same circumstances occurred. The 
masses of the southern people were Democrats. 
A portion of the northern people v/ere Democrats 
also. But another portion — those who were en- 
gaged in commerce, those who were under Eng- 



iish influence, those who were connected with that 
policy tliat looked forward with satisfaction to a 
national debt, to a funding system — took the op- 
posite side. These contests continued; and while 
they went on, State after State in the northern 
portion of the United States got rid of slavery; 
and why? Because there was any spirit of phi- 
lanthropy abroad.' Not at all. It was then a 
question looked at v/ithout excitement. It was 
a question wliich produced no agitation. Slavei-y 
was got rid of in State after State because it was 
no longer the interest of the people of those States 
to maintain the institution. 

While these changes were going on this coun- 
try was embroiled in a foreign war. That foreign 
war had the effect of associating all those who 
were engaged in commerce — which was peculi- 
arly affected by the war — in one body, in oppo- 
sition to the measures of the General Govern- 
ment. The great masses of the people, resident 
in the country , those engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits, took the opposite side, and constituted the 
masses of the Democratic party, North atid South, 
which had inaugurated the policy of the nation 
which gave rise to the war, which insisted on its 
vigorous prosecution, and which justified it after 
it was followed by peace. In the early years of 
the Republic, thepolitical supremacy in the nation 
was vested in a party which embraced within its 
bosom nearly the M'hole agricultural portion of 
the community. This party, it is true, extended, 
at all times, throughout the North and South, but 
it.s greatest strength was always in the South, 
because the whole South was agricultural. The 
opposition to this party was composed of those 
connected with the other great interests of the 
nation, who were mostly inhabitants of the north- 
ern portions of the Union. When slavery had 
disappeared from the most of the northern States, 
the fact that the strength of the Democratic party 
was in the agricultural South suggested to north- 
ern politicians, who were discontented at their 
•exclusion from political power as members of a 
party which was inferior in numbers, the idea of 
laying hold of the subject of slavery as one having 
within itself the elements for an agitation which 
would, at last, alienate the Democrats of the North 
from those of the South. 

The firstoccusion for the use of this new-found 
source of political power was furnished when 
Missouri presented herself for admission into the 
Union. When discus.sion grew up in reference 
fo the propriety of admitting that Territory as a 
State, as a member of this great Confederacy, 
opposition was made on the ground that slavery 
existed within her limits, and, although that was 
the only ground of objection, the point on which 
the battle was fought, it was boldly declared, by 
.some of the greatest men that took part against 
her admission in that controverjiy, that the real 
contest then was one for political power. That 
was the declaration made l)y Rufus King in the 
various discussions to which the admission of 
Missouri gave rise in Corjgress. And is there a 
man, '■ with discourse of reason," who does not 
know that that has been the real cause of every 
contest of the same kind with respect to our Ter- 
ritories since that day? 



Now, Mr. Chairman, there has been agreatdeal 
said in reference to the future. It has been as- 
serted that, in the progress o(* the nation, by its 
advances in population at the North, the South is 
to be overwhelmed. It has been asserted that the 
slave States are to be placed at disadvantage, and 
are hereafter to cease to have any influence in the 
direction of the policy of the General Government 
— to have any voice in the ordering of its affairs. 
It is attempted to be shown that that is so, by pre- 
tending that there is an antagonism between free 
and slave labor; and that, because of that antag- 
onism, the slave States of the South will continue 
to advance at a slo\t pace, under the quiet influ- 
ences of a pcacefuj;, unambitious, contented in- 
dustry; while the iifprthern portions of the United 
Slates are hurrying on with the strides of agiant, 
who feels the firsl'mad impulses awakened in his 
bosom by the dawining consciousness of his just- 
developed p!iysi«il strength. The gentlemen who 
take that view — and certainly the immediate past 
justifies them in some degree in looking forward 
to such results — have gone further, and have as- 
serted that this difference in the progress of the 
I; two portions of the United States grows out of 
1 1 the fact that man swells to his full proportions 
only where there is no slavery; that free labor 
is ennobling on free soil Mone; and that where 
slavery exists, as in the South, there labor ceases 
to be honorable, and a deadly blight falls upon 
the free man who lives in its shadow. 

Mr. Chairman, if we may be permitted to judge 
of the designs of men from their acts, as displayed 
by a long course of conduct in one direction, I 
think that I might, with great propriety, venture 
to assert that it is the single aim of those who are 
now, and have long been,?at the head of the Re- 
publican organization — wjo direct and control all 
its movements, who giveisl^ape and complexion 
< to all their schemes of pam' policy — to divide the 
people of the United Stay;s into two great scc- 
j tional parties; to alienate ^he men of the North 
! from the men of the Soutl;j„''by every art familiar 
j to the demagogue. And why? For what pur- 
i pose? I will tell you, sir. It is with the design 
I of breaking the bonds that have hitherto holdcn 
together those men, no matter where found, who 
have acted together throughout the length and 
breadth of this mighty nation, for the purpose 
j of carrying on the national Government with a 
I single eye to the pul)lic good, and to the entire 
I exclusion of all those influences which are perpet- 
ually struggling to exercise the powers of govern- 
ment to advance the interests of individuals or 
: of particular classes, at the expense of Ihc great 
i masses of their fellow-men. 
! And how, sir, do tlio^e men prosecute their un- 
hallowed enterprise? What are the means which 
they employ to accomplish their unholy purpose? 
Wh)', they are perpetually engaged in making the 
I mo.st wanton, the most malignant, assaults upon 
' the institutions of the South, in glorifying the 
i favored North, and holding up what they call the 
I slow progress of the South, and contrasting it 
i with the wonderful, the unexampled advances of 
' the North, of late years, in population, public im- 
I provements, and wealth. And why is this? It 
is with the intent and design of humiliating the 



people of tiie South, by keeping; the fact con- 
stantly before their eyes that they have been out- 
stripped in the race for piiyRica! power arid inute- 
rirtl wealth by their more fortunate brethren, and 
filling the people of the North witli a lofty pride, 
an overweening self-glory, which alone disposes 
men to engage in that career of injustice and op- 
pression towards their fellow-men, which these 
leaders have long been planning in secret, and 
which their hot haste to enjoy has now made ihcm 
disclose before the time for tlieir success had fully 
ripened. And besides this, these men' are also 
engaged in filling theirgreedy followers, who hun- 
ger and thirst after the spoils of office, with the 
expectation that they must soon ex|iel their op- 
ponents from tlie high places of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, and enter into their permanent posses- 
sion; because, say they, the hostility to the South 
which they have already succeeded in exciting by 
their arts, will continue to increase in the North, 
so as to make any farther union of the Democrats 
of the North with those of the South impossible. 
Yes, sir, and these men even go further; they do 
not hesitate to assert that no more slave States can 
come into the Union, and tliat this feeling of hos- 
tility to the South will necessarily pervade the 
populations of all of the new States which must 
at no distant day be admitted. 

Now, for one, I take an entirely different view 
in regard to these matters; and I think that all 
experience will satisfy any one that chooses to 
refer to the past and to look to the future, that 
there is a grave error lying at the bottom of all 
these assertions. It is true, Mr. Chairman, that 
at this time the North is advancing at a wonder- 
ful rate. She is increasing in population. -She is 
increasing in wealth in an unexampled manner. 
She is increasing so rapidly, thAt the progress of 
the South, great though it is, seems to be want 
of motion. These gentlemen say that this dilTer- 
ence grows out of the existence of free labor on 
one side, and of slavery on the other. To some 
extent, that, undoubtedly, has a connection with 
the relative progress of the two portions of the 
United States. But that connection grows out of 
its accidental effect in turning aside to some de- 
gree the streams of emigration which have flowed 
into the country for more than half a century, 
and not of anything in the nature or necessary 
effects of slavery itself as an existing institution. 
It is in that way, and in that way alone, that sla- 
very has produced any effect iu preventing the 
growth of the South. 

When we look back at the past we see that up 
to the period when the political societies of Eu- 
rope were so much disturbed and upheaved by 
popular commotions that great numbers of their 
people were compelled to emigrate^ the progress 
of the South in population and in material wealth 
was more rapid than that of the North. But after 
civil commotions had disturbed the whole frame- 
work of society in Europe, there grew up that feel- 
ing of uneasiness which induced multitudes to flee 
from scenes of St rife and carnage ; to flee from scenes 
of distress; to flee from those countries that were 
to become the seats of war and of civil strife. And, 
as a matter of course, as all these disturbances 



took place in a northern climate, the population 
thus disturlied flowed into the northern portion of 
the United States, because it possessed the climai.> 
congenial to them and because there those pur- 
suits with which they were familiar were followed. 
Scarcely any emigration tended to the South, ai.d 
the progress which the South has made has grown 
out of the natural increase of her people and tlu ir 
steady prosecution of industrial pursuits. The 
North has been swollen by this mighty tide which 
has flowed in for lialf a century because of the po- 
litical disturbances which have agitated the Old 
World, and which will now continue to flow ou 
until the populations of the two hemispheres are 
equalized. 

But, Mr. Chairman, our northern brethren 
should not exult because of the glory of their pres- 
] ent situation. It is necessary for the statesman 
to look to the past and the future, as well as to 
the present. And he fails in his duty to the pub- 
lic, if he limits his view to the circum.'5tanci-:j 
; which immediately surround him, when he is 
} about to determine upon the proper policy of a 
t people — upon his course of conduct — because it 
i is not what will suit to-day, but what will suit 
I all future time, that ought to guide him when 
( engaged in devising and establishing on a solid 
I foundation the policy that is to govern mighty 
! nations like this. Now, sir, whilst the nortliern 
i States are in their present situation, whilst we 
[ have an immense national domain which i.s still 
[ unoccupied, labor will be honorable at the North; 
i the man who labors, and earns his bread in tln' 
I sweat of his brow, will be clothed in all tlie dig- 
nity of his nature. But am I to be told that that 
state of tilings which now exists in the North i.s 
I to continue through the unlimited future.' Mr. 
I Chairman, the institutions of civil society which 
; exist throughout the whole North are precisely 
! the institutions of civil society which exist in 
; England and France, which occupy a great por- 
[ tion of Europe, and pervade and control many of 
1 the nations of Asia. And what is the spectac.h: 
! there presented .' Wlurt ver population is den.se, 
wherever the soil is fully occupied, everywhere, 
' turn your gaze where you please, you will fiinl 
! that capital has the mastery over labor; you will 
I find that when those institutions operate upon 
j freemen without let or hinderance until they have 
j worked out and produced their final results, cap- 
j ital at last centers in a few hands, and it is ih.- 
I lot of the many to toil to swell the fortunes and 
1 minister to the enjoyments and luxuries of tlie 
j few. Let us for one moment look at the position 
I of Great Britain, and what do we see there.' In 
i the works of theirgreat political writers who have 
I looked at the relations between tlie members of 
I llie different classes of their society, what is the 
I principle which is enunciated, and which all exfx;- 
I rience shows to lie at the foundation and to be the 
i very basis, the substratum, of their whole sociil 
fabric' Nothing but this dreary, this dreadful, 
this unhappy truth, that in all crowded connnu- 
nities the sole recompense for labor is the mcan.^ 
of living. In Great Britain you will find that that 
stale of society which is founded upon institu- 
tions such as exist throughout the North, prode- 



cntod tliro»)gli a scries of years, when tlie people 
werf in tlip possr.ssion and fiijoynn'nlot'as much 
individual liberty as lins ever fallen to the lot of 
any people that ever ilourished upon this earth, 
has terminated in concentrating tlie soil in the 
liands of thirty thousand landholders, and has 
had the elTect of producint; a state of things in 
which ninety-five hundredths of the whole mass 
of the people that live and breathe and have their 
being within that mfghty empire are but mere 
hevi^ers of wood and drawers of water to their 
happier brethren who are in the possession of 
capital. By referring to liieir statistics, you will 
find that whenever any agitation takes place in 
the political world which has the effect of dis- 
turbing in the slightest degree the operations of 
trade, not thousands or hundreds of thousands, 
but millions of men are deprived of employment; 
and that they and their lamilies have to suffer the 
pangs of hunger, and to pine and perish from 
want. Want in the midst of countless wealth — 
famine in the midst of piles and heaps of surplus 
food, owned and denied to their necessities by 
capital. 

Now, sir, I have before me a statement, taken 
from a recent hZnglisli work, giving details in re- 
lation to the history of their poor-laws; which 
shows that the public burden iriiposed upon the 
people of England and Wales alone, when they 
numbered but !), 000,000, amounted to the sum of 
<'l20,000,000a year for the support of their paupers. 
And it appears from the same work tliat, when 
their number had augmented to 1 1 ,000,000 in 1818, 
thesecontributionsamounted to the enormous sum 
of ^9,r)00,000, or nearly lifty million dollars; and 
you will find further, by reference to these fearful 
.■statistics, that in England, that seat of philan- 
thropy — England, which has been engaged in this 
crusade against southern institutions — England", 
which has been the stimulator of our northern 
l)ret!iren to engage in warfare upon us — in l?ng- 
land, with a })opulation of ab.^ut 15,000,000, in 
1840 1,200,000 persons were supported by the 
hand of public charity; that in 1841 there were 
nearly 1,300,000; and that^n 1842the number had 
swelled to 1,500,000. 

But when you turn to Ireland — unliappy Ire- 

■Jand! — what is the spectacle presented there? 
When political difficulties, when commercial dif- 

;fiiuilties distnib industry, she always suffers; but 
wiien, in addition to these causes, Nature with- 
holds her kindly influence, and there is a partial j 
failure of the crops, Ir<;land, unhappy, downtrod- i 

'ilrn Ireland, always suliers almost lieyond the I 
limits of human enduratic-e. What, sir, has be- ' 

:lallen Ireland within our own day? I refer the 
House to the details given — and they are of a { 
character to move the heart of any man— in the ' 
work of Sir CJeorge Nichol.son the history of the ; 
poor Im\v3 of Ireland. It will be found, that be- j 
pause of the destitution followingon the failure of! 
th»; potato crop in 1815 and 184(5, a i;reat portion 1 
of her total population, then exccudin:; eight mil- j 
lions, were dependent on the Government for the I 
meansMffScape from starvation. "In .Tuly, 1847," i 
say« this writer, •' the system [of extraordinary , 

.--eiief] rvaclied its highest point, and 3,030,71ii^ 



persons then received separate rations, of which 
9,265, .'>,'J4 were adults, and 755,178 were chil- 
dren !" 

In 1848, we learn from the same writer that 
2,043,000 persons were relieved from the pressure 
of famine; and that, in 1849, the number had in- 
creased to 2,142,766. What a sad, what an afflict- 
ing spectacle ! A free people, in possession of one 
of the most fruitful countries that the sun shines 
on in his daily round, a population as industrious 
as any the world ever saw, and in the full enjoy- 
ment of tliat inestimable ]irivilege, the unlimited 
right of disposing of their labor at their own M'iil 
and pleasure, were subjected, during the course 
of more than three years, " to all the ills that flesh 
is heir to." Yes, sir, during the whole of that 
time they suffered from famine, from pestilence, 
engendered by want of food, from all the evils 
which necessarily overwhelm the toiling millions 
of mankind, no matter how free they are, when 
overtaken by circumstances like those referred to. 
And then, sir, they perish away from the very- 
face of their native earth, in the presence of their 
usual en)ployers, because to liiL-m has been ap- 
plied the principle of that state of society — that 
" the recompenai; for labor is the means of living" 
— and that inexorable rule which goes along witli 
tiiis principle — that nolhins: is due I'rom capital to 
the laborer but in exchange for his labor. Wlio 
can realize ail this without shuddering at the mere 
thought of the agony which wrun? the hearts of 
that free but suffering people ? SVliy, sir, in that 
time of calamity, nearly one entire fourth of the 
free sons of Ireland sunk into the grave. The 
fearful statistics are here. The population, in 
1841, amounted to 8,175,000; in 1851, the popu- 
lation had fallen to 6,500,000. The census com- 
missioners, in their report on that subject — wliich 
is quoted in the work referred to — say, after stat- 
ing that the number who had perished armounte^l 
10^1,622,739: 

'•• Hut Iby IxMni; hki cly the ilifterrnce bPtwecn the number 
of the p(;o|)le in 1841 ami J?.J1, withoiu making niiy allow- 
a:iee for a natural and ordinary increase of populaiion, con- 
veys but very jnadeQuatuly tiie efi'cct of the visitation <rf 
famine and pestilence.'' * « * * "VVeiiii(t 
that the popululion of tlieSOth of March. 1851. would pr->l)- 
ahly tiavi; numbered S),(il8,7l)9, insteiid of (;..5-?}.38r». and that. 
(!onsK}uenlly, tlie loss of population, between IfWl and 18)1, 
may be computet! al liju enormous amount of :2,'lliu,'114 pef- 
sons." 

What is the position of France? I have heforo 
iTie a statement contained in a work which oiiglit 
to be good authority, as it was dedicated to a gen- 
tleman who was at the head of this moveiHent 
which aims to strike at southern ii!siitutions,aiid 
for years the head of th.e British Government — 
Sir Robert I'ecl. It is a book pui)lished in 1844, 
and tlie writer of thai work, which was then pub- 
lished in London, and is to be t'oiind in onrCoii- 
gressional Library, examines the caixlition of 
['Vance. 

It is stated in this work' that France, at that time, 
contained al)ove 34, 4Ui), 000 inhabitants who were 
disseminated over the country: not as in England, 
congregated at many points in large masses. 
This population, exclusive of 1,855,000, who 
were said to be paupers, was then divided into 



classes, as shown in the following table, which 
will be found on page 91 



AKric'.iItiirists.. 
Tradt'sineii .... 
iHanufiicluiers. 



Masters, ^c. 
. . 1 ,394.000 
..1,I(W,'009 
, . 704,000 



Total :!.30r).000 



Servants, Workmen. 
l(),8-!6.000 
5,812,000 
3,42t),O0O 

28.084,000 



And the writer of this work goes on to remark 
(hat — 

'■ Tiie result of this subilivision i.^ that the ihrcR claspfs 
arc iiipvv n^dui'fd lo two. Tlie firsl^ coiiipo.^oil or3,3^S,l'0J, 
<l.-viiting tllt'ir capital, and tlit'ir iisttiiliftiuifu to the piir.<uil 
<i('a:;rk:ulnir(; and iiidii.stry, are. in some sort, indi'pi iidsMit. 
Ti)(! ."^cijond, aniotiiititif! to 2(1, 084.01)0, have no other capi- 
t.il tliaii their hodily r^trenglh, which lliey let on hire to those 
w ho eomposc llie fir.-!t. This i-< ine workina; chiifs, oiviiig 
tl.i'ir daily hrcTd to their daily lahor.and precluded, hy their 
l»'iviTly aiid ihfir oecupatioii, iVom ail p,vtitipation in nm- 
liicilia/ or political action. .\dd to them the poor, the indi- 
E-iil.csliniati-d al ! ,K.->.;,0W,and we haveaiotal of27,br>,3,000 
iiiilividuals completely siim out from civic life ; in one word, 
liie French Helots." 

.-Xtid now let v.a tiirt* to still another country 
wiiich displays the workings of the ordinary in- 
siitiitions of civil society, when existing in the 
midst of denser masses than are anywhere met 
with in European countries, which are in the legal 
enjoyment of the most unrestricted, unlimited 
fr<-e(ii)m. Let us g;lance at Cliina, one of the 
luigpst empires which ever existed upon tlie face 
of the eariii. What is the spectacle presented 
ilii:re.' I hold in my hand a paper which I have 
transcribed from the recent work of the Abbe liuc. 
1 read his words: 

•■• At all epochs, and in the host governed conntrie?, t4icre 
always has heen, and there always will he, poor; bur un- 
(iii'^iionaidy there can be found in no other country such a 
ri '|>ih ofdisaiUrous (wverty as in the (Celestial empire. Not 
a year passes in wliich a terrific number of persons do npt 
piri-h of famine in some part or other of China ; and the 
multitude of those who live from day to day isinealcnlnble. 
I.ei a drought, or an inundation, or any accident whatever, 
ivciir lo injure the harvest in a single province, and two 
thirds of the pojHilation are immediately reduced to a stale 
of starvation. You see them formin>j themselves into nu 
ni'rous bands — p Tfeet armies of beggars — and proceedin;» 
toi;Hlier. men, women, and children, to seek in the towns 
and viltaces lor some little nourishment, &c. Many fall 
<j>«n fainliii? Iiy the wayside and die before they can leacii 
ihe place where they had hoped to tind help. Vou see their 
h.hlies lyim; in the iields.and at the road side ; and you pass 
wHiiout takiiie niueli notice of them, so familiar is the hor- 
riJ ripectacli." 

" Why is it, tlien," it maybe asked, " if com- 
rnunities composed entirely of free men are sub- 
ji'cted to such terrible evils, elsewhere, by the 
mere workiiisjs of the institutions which charac- 
terize all civilized society, that they do not now 
show themselves in the northern Slates?" The 
answer, sir, is simple. The existence of a vast 
public domain has hitherto prevented the devel- 
velojjment of the results necessarily growinsj out 
of tile social system now existing in the jNorth. 
When our western wilderness is peopled, when 
pi>|iulation becoines den.se within the limits of the 
northern portions of the United Slates, then, 1 
K.iy,the stiite of things which now exists in Eng- 
land, the sinie of things which exists in France, 
the state of things which exists in China, will 
sjuiiig into existence there, because it is, sooner 
or laiKr, a necessary result of the existing condi- 
uoii of their social fabric. It grows out of rtn 



absolute, an iron necessity, entailed upon all 
crowded communities by the undisputed mastery 
of capital over labor. And 1 would say to my 
northern friends that if, instead of wasting their 
time in carrying on an unjust warfare against their 
brethren in the South, they w<-re to direct (lieir 
enei-gies to the investigation of the causes of ihis 
state of things, and if ihey were to exert their in- 
genuity for the purpose of devising some means 
by which labor could be put upon a footing of 
equality with capital, they would be doing the 
world some service, and would deserve well of 
their fellow-men through all time. But they will 
not attempt to do that, as long as they are war- 
ring upon a state of society in which the dignity 
of labor is now maintained, and in which alone il 
always will be maintained. 

In Europe, where all the people are nominally 
free, the great and broad distinction which ob- 
tains, is a distinction between those who haVs' 
capital and those who have none; between tb« 
men of money, and those whose only capita! is 
their " bone and muscle," their capacity to toil, 
and who are dependent for the barest means of 
subsistence upon the employment which is fur- 
nished to them by the men of money — those who 
possess capital. No matter what ma)'' be a man*« 
worth: no matter what may be his moral quali- 
ties; if his poverty compels him to discharge me- 
nial offices, that man stands there in an inferior 
position. And now, letme ask ray northern breth- 
ren if this feature of European society is not dis- 
playing itself among them .' Is not the man en- 
gaged in the performance of meiiial services — is 
not the man who labors for his daily bread, who 
wins it day by day by honest toil, looked upon 
to-day, in every northern city, in every northern 
village, in every northern hamlet, as inferior to 
their happier and more prosperous brethren .' Ar«' 
they not spoken of familiarly, ino.'it familiarly, an 
belonging to the lower classes ? I know it is so. 
Sir, I honor labor with my whole heart; and my 
bile has been deeply stirred there by the slights 
which I have often seen the " curled darlings" 
of fortune put upon their less favored brethren. 
But this can never be in the frame-work of south- 
ern society. Such can never be the state of thingw 
in the t'rame-v/ork of any society in which slavery 
exists as it exists in the southern States, where' a 
different and an inferior race is subjected to thrall- 
drom. There all menial offices are performed Iry 
this inferior race. JMy northern brethren seeoj 
to think that labor is without honor in the South. 
I say it is the only portion of the United States 
where it receives due honor. In the South lhi» 
white man's labor is made use of, and it is fs» 
successful as it is in the North. It is directed \o 
what is necessary. White men till their fields; 
white men push the plane; wliite men work at 
the anvil; they build our houses, and carry on all 
the legitimate operations of mechanics. Th« 
white man at the South i.9 still a white man, and 
belongs to the governing and superior class; and 
no matter what may be his poverty, he is the peer 
of his feilow-man. If you go beyond the confines 
of our southern cities," in which the same vicious 
state of society exists as is to be found in the 
northern capitals, and in all Eurapean cities and 



6 



communities, you will find that our planters, the 
men of the givatest fortunes and the largest cap- 
itals, meet with their fellow while men, poor 
though they he, thouf^h their days are passed in 
honet,t toil, whcilicr it be in the fields, or in the 
work-shop, in our puljlic meetin;js, and in our 
public social entertainments, upon the footinu; of 
the most perfect tqualiiy. I speak with knowl- 
e<lge;I speak ofscoieM which have bei:n presented 
to my eyes da}- alter day in my own State, in 
my own neighljorhood, in my own circle. In the 
North those rnen would lie spoken of as persotis 
belonging to the lower classes. At the South 
they are high-minded, honorable men, with as 
much claim to public consideration as he who 
lives in the midst of luxury; who wield.s minions. 

When I look to tht; future, I see liiat the day 
will come when these evils wiiich follow upon a 
dense population of freemen living in that state 
of society which exists in the we.*<tern, the cen- 
tral, and the .southern portions of Europe — in all 
Europe, indeed, except Russia — which exisis in 
rich, prosperous, and powerful England, will be 
inflicted upon the jN'oith a.s the inevitable conse- 
quence of the prevalence of the principles neces- 
sarily involved in the workings of their existing 
social institutions. A^o such evils, however, can 
ever afflict the South so long as that domestic in- 
Ktilution which has provoked both European and 
northern hostility for more than a quarter of a 
century shall continue to exist among her people 
as a part of th(Mr social organization. And why .' 
Because that class which makes up the masses of 
mankind where population is dense, and whose 
condition of complete and perfect dejiendence 
upon the calls of capital, though the law declares 
liiem to be abs dutely free, whose common and 
almost unchangeable destiny is so sadly yet elo- 
quently told in the fearful sentence, " the recom- 
pense of labor is the means of living" — that class, 
1 say, has no existence in her social system. 

Wherever that necessity which knows no law 
reduces the masses of free men, who are subjected 
to the pressure and restraints of civil society in 
tlie over-crowded communities of the world, to be- 
come the hewersof wood and the drawers of water 
to their more prosperous brethren, they are inev- 
itably oppressed, ground down, crushed, hope- 
lessly, beneath the weight of the most dreary of 
all despotisms — that of capital. When the unhappy 
subjects of this despotism in free and enlightened 
and philanthropic England, in joyous and heroic 
l-'rance, in teeming China, have work, and are 
able to work, they can only hope to barter their 
daily toil for their daily bread; to exchange their 
present labor for present subsistence; but when 
there is no work for them, or they are unable to 
work, no matter from what cause, what then .' 
Wliy, sir, they are left naked and helpless in the 
stern gripe of that relentless, unpitying foe, which 
never, for one moment, ceases to keep close upon 
their track — grim, remorseless, exterminating 
want. But it is not so with the common laborer 
of our social system in the South. The African, 
the black slave wlio occupies tliat position there, 
is at least free, and always will be free, from the 
tyranny of capital, lie makes a portion of cnp- 
Jldl. it uses hmi, it is true; but it also nourishes 



and protects him, as well when there is no labor 
for him, or when he is unable to labor, as when 
he labors; and he is not destined to suffer from 
hunger, or from cold, or even liable to be deprived 
of the little comforts and pleasures that cheer his 
humble lot in life, because of the vicissitudes of 
trade, the uncertainty of the seasons, or deficient 
harvests. 

But, sir, this is not all. The existence of thi.s 
class, say what you will, gentlemen of the North, 
lias the effect of ennobling and giving dignity to 
the laboring while man. Labor though he may, 
and no matter in how humble a position, he i.s 
still white. He belongs to the governing, the su- 
perior class. In law, he is not only the peer of 
the master of the slave, but if he possess intelli- 
gence, good manners, jirobity of character, he is 
everywhere recognized, socially, as the peer of 
hi.s neighbor, whatever may be that neighbor's 
superiority in wealth or in the extent of his pos- 
sessions. In the South, Mr. Chairman, labor 
does not degrade the whi^e man, but the while 
man elevates labor. The same disparities in fi>r- 
tune exist among white men in the South as else- 
where; but they do not there give rise to the same 
distinctions in rank wliich always result from 
them where slavery docs not exist. 

And not only is the laboring white man more 
honored, and his labor more honorable, und. r 
our social system in the South, than elsewhere, 
but his labor is of a kind which exempts him, in 
a great degree, and will always continue to ex- 
empt him, from the fluctuations which have been, 
and always will continue to be, the curse of thu 
laborer under a different social system. Thw 
species of labor which requires mere thews and 
sinews — physical strength, directed by the mo^t 
ordinary human intelligence, is, with us, rarely 
performed by the white man. That is done by 
the inferior race, while the laboring white man is 
called on to perform the work that puts in requi- 
sition intellect and skill — mechanical aptitude, 
care, judgment, faithfulness. And as all labor of 
this kind is necessarily the helpmate of capit;il 
and not its subject, the demand for it is far more 
steady, and the laborers who supply it are com- 
paratively free from the terrible evils which so 
frequently afflict all of the other classes of free 
laboring men. 

I regret, Mr. Chairman, that I have not more 
time, for I would like to speak upon this subjiTt 
at length. But, though I have treated it in a hur- 
ried manner, I trust that I have said enough to 
show our norlhern brethren that they are in error 
when they assert that our social system in iti'i 
South degrades labor, and debases the laboririji 
white man. And 1 trust that I have also said 
enough to make those who are willing to look at 
what the past has imposed on other countries, 
and to divine from that past what the future will 
fasten upon us, to consider dispassionately and 
well whether there is any reason why the stales- 
man and philosopher should look to the North iti 
the boundless future with that spirit of exultation 
which the leaders of the Republican j)ariy licivt; 
been so longaccustonii'd to display in these Halls; 
or whether there is room for any well-groundid 
apprehension that the social system of the South 



is less favorable to the perpetuation of well-or- 
dered republican government, or to the progress 
and advancement of a great nation in everytliing 
tbat concerns the freedom, equality, and perma- 
nent happiness of her people. 

I will now, Mr. Chairman, turn to the other 
subject to which I before referred, and proceed 
to show that the expectations of the Republican 
leaders, that the South is to be crushed out, that 
her people are to be deprived of all voice in the 
direction of the public policy and business of the 
country, because nearly all of the States which 
will be hereafter admitted into the Union will be 
hostile to her, are as unfounded as the represent- 
ations to which 1 have already called your atten- 
tion, with respect to the effects of slavery, were 
erroneous. 

The members of that party, which is arrayed 
in a solid body against the South, speak as if tiie 
South were about being pushed to the wall; as if 
v/e are to lose our weight in this Republic because 
of this crusade against us, which has been so long 
preached by the brawling apostles of free soil to 
a portion of the freemen of the North. Why, sir, 
a grave Senator, at the other end of the Capitol, 
announced from his place the other day that there 
had been a war waging for a long time between 
the two sections of the Union, and that the battle 
had been fought and won. And that honorable 
gentleman, after rubbing his hands together in 
great glee at the important announcement, seemed 
to look into the future as though he saw the South 
already in his clutch. 

Mr. Chairman, when I look to the future, I see 
a different sight. I remember that there is only 
a small portion of territory still to be occupied 
by our people that is the peculiar domain of our 
northern brethren. Within a few, a very few 
yearsi, the only new States presenting themselves 
for admission into this mighty family of nations 
will be States which have been established, which 
have grown up on the waters of the blue Pacific. 

Will their people have this feeling? Will they 
have the institutions that will make them join our 
northern brethren in their warfare upon us? I 
believe not. I conceive, sir, that their position 
will be widely different from that which has been 
assigned to them in fancy by the Senator from 
New York, and by his coworkers, his partners 
that are to be in his approaching greatness. 

Looking to the west, across the vast Pacific, 
Asia lies in view — Asia which furnishes from her 
teeming millions, those thousands upon thou- 
sands of the free poor, dogged by want and des- 
titution, which philanthropic England and phi- 
lanthropic France arc now engaged in bringing 
from their homes, in obedience to the demands of 
their planters-in their tropical colonies, to fill, as 
indentured apprentices, the places in their cane 
fields which had been before occupied by slaves, 
of which their previous philanthropy had deprived 
them. Yes, sir, which furnishes tiie coolies 
which, under the protection of their laws, ami of 
their flags, are transported to the cane fields of 
the West Indies, of Mauritius, and wherever else 
tiiere are a soil and a climate favorable to the 
•rrowth of tropical productions. 

From that continent mighty streams of emi- 



gration will certainly flow in upon our western 
Territories. And what, let me ask, must be the 
inevitable results of that emigration ? The pop- 
ulation thus thrown in upon them is of such a 
character that it cannot assimilate with the people 
inhabiting the United States. They are foreign 
to them in habits, foreign to them in their feel- 
ings, foreign to them in their religion. They are 
of a different race and of a different nature. If 
they are admitted as equals, they would soon con- 
stitute a majority of the inhabitants. And what 
then ? Would they not proceed to carry out their 
own views? to adopt their own civil institutions? 
establish their own religions? and to set up their 
manners and habits and usages ? Certainly they 
would; and if admitted as equals iliese strangers 
would soon fill those vast territories, destined, 
as I hope and trust at no distant day, to be great 
seats of American empire, and Christianity would 
give place to Buddhism and to the worship of the 
god Fo, and of the long list of other idols that 
figure in their heathen mythology. The minis- 
tors of the meek and lowly Jesus would give place 
to the bonzes, and to the varied tribes" of igno- 
rant and besotted priests, who bow down before 
the misshapen and monstrous images of their 
gods; and the civilization, refinement, and eleva- 
ted philosophy of the white races of Europe ai>d 
America who now people those shores, would bo 
trodden out by the pagan barbarism of the yellow 
races of Asia. 

And now, sir, let me ask, is there any one who 
is disposed, in order to gratify the .sickly senti- 
mentalities of Exeter Hall, or the fanatical and 
ferocious dogmas of the Tabernacle, or the fine- 
spun theories of those who back the Kansas- 
shriekers of the North; is there any one, I say, 
who would stand idly by and permit such a wrong 
to be done to all true religion and civilization ? I 
tljink not. And for one, sir, I do not hesitate to 
believe that it is both the right and the duty of the 
people there to look to it in time, and apply the 
needful remedy. Their position will force this 
question upon our brethren who are in posses- 
sion of the almost boundless regions beyond the 
Rocky Mountains. And, sir, tl;ey will be com- 
pelled, by a political necessity, to decide it in fa- 
vor of the religion, the morals, the civilization, 
and the refinementand manners of the white race. 
No, sir; our brethren there will have no choice. 
They must recognize the fact which the Almighty 
stamped upon these races when he created them 
inferior to the white man, and refuse to regard 
them as equals, or to admit them to the enjoyment 
of any of the political rights now freely accord- 
ed to our fellow white men who come among us 
to find new homes. I do not claim the spirit of 
prophecy, but 1 will venture to say this: that in 
my day, and before half a dozen years shall have 
passed by, it will have become the settled policy 
of the people on the Pacific slope to refuse to per- 
mit the individuals of the Asiatic races who come 
amon^'them to become members of their political 
society; to deny to them the right to enjoy any 
of the political privileges or immunities accorded 
to citizens of the United States. There will be a 
discrimination against them because of their race. 
They will, in all likelihood, be subjected to the 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



B 



operation oftlie sime system of laws which Eng- 
land has estali'ishod in the Mauritius and Triiii- 
dsid and tlie West India Islands, and which France 
is seeking to establish everywhere. 

What is that condition of society? The posi- 
tion of the people who are the subjects of this 
system of policy is one of inferiority ; it is one of 
vt>ssalage; it is one of quasi slavery. But what- 
ever it may he, and however philanthrojjic Eng- 
land and imperial France may expatiate upon its 
civil advantages and moral beauties as contrasted 
with slavery, one thing is certain: the people 
among whom it exists will have no sympathy 
with that feeling which has displayed itself in 
many portions of the North. It will be found 
that among these people a new spirit will be born. 
And that spirit, sir, will be nourished by the 
streams of emigration and by the tide of com- 
merce setting in on these shores, until it has 
swelled and expanded itself .so as to fill the whole 
Pacific coast. It will ascend the valleys of the 
western slope. It will climb the Rocky Mount- 
ains; and when it has reached its summits, and 
its colossal proportions and its glorious features 
aredisplayed to ourgazeas it casta itsfirstglances 
to the eastward , the demon of tanuticism will stand 
rebuked, and the fell spirits of sectional hate and 
civil discord will cower under its majestic pres- 




016 089 034 4 



ence and flee fon 
Mr. Chairman, ai 
come a united peo....... 

For myself, Mr. Chairman, when I look to the 
future I feel persuaded that the leaders of the ll-;- 
publican party will be defeated in all of their deejt- 
laid schemes; that an irresistible; an overruling 
necessity will soon repulse their ambitious at- 
tempts, and put a stop to this crusade against u.-s. 
I icel, sir, that there is a Divinity above us, il»« 
great Disposer of human events, v/ho 

" sliapes our enl!^!, 

Rouf^li hew tticin bow «e will." 

If we pass this crisis in safety, as I trust in God 
we may, what I see in the future makes me fee! 
that we shall s<oon become the greatest people th.it 
the world has ever seen. We shall then be in a 
condition to grasp the rod of empire which I'u-s 
within our reach; and then,. sir, moving along tli*' 
highway of greatness, this mighty people will 
sway the destinies of the whole civilized world. 
And if they themselves continue under the guid- 
ance of that wisdom and moderation which have 
hitherto distinguiehed their policy towards other 
nations, they will be enabled to discharge ti»;it 
high mission which the Ahriighly has, as I be- 
lieve, imposed upon them, for the future good of 
the whole human family. 



Priuted at the Congressional Globe Office. 



LIBRAR' 




0- 



